An excerpt from, "British Christian Zionism (Part 2): the work of Laurence Oliphant" by Philip Earl Steele, fathom, January 2020:
Like Mary Ann Evans/George Eliot, Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888) was raised in the religious atmosphere of Evangelical Christianity. However, unlike Eliot, the adult Oliphant’s faith did not develop along intellectual and emotional lines, but gravitated toward mysticisms that were nominally Christian, though widely considered cultic. Indeed, in 1868 Oliphant caused a scandal when he surrendered his seat in Parliament in order to join the sect of the spiritualist Thomas Lake Harris in Brocton, New York. Ultimately, he was to draw both his mother and his two wives into this adventure. In 1882, during their lengthy and bitter rupture with Harris, Oliphant and his first wife, Alice, settled in Haifa on the northern coast of today’s Israel in order, together with Jewish pioneers, to realise what to outsiders were murky eschatological intentions to redeem the Holy Land.
As both his contemporaries and biographers stress, Oliphant led a double-life from his early adult years. On the one hand he was a seasoned diplomat (and intelligence agent) who for decades enjoyed the trust of the British establishment, as well as a prolific foreign correspondent and writer who was widely admired, and not only in Great Britain.
. . .Christian Zionism is a phenomenon that appeared in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, particularly in its Calvinist form, and is most closely associated with Evangelical Christianity. What is salient here is that Evangelical Christians replaced Catholic saints with the Hebrew prophets and heroes of the Old Testament – ie. The Hebrew Bible. Moreover, the Evangelical belief that the Covenant between God and the People of Israel remains valid (as per Paul’s teaching in Romans 11) soon conditioned Evangelical Christians to see European Jews as Biblical Israelites.
Evangelical Christians also lay great store in Biblical prophecies – a centrally important one being that the Jews would one day restore themselves in their ancient homeland. This belief had accompanied Protestantism on the Isles since the Reformation. However, it became an objective pursued politically not until after the Napoleonic Wars, once Great Britain had become a powerful global empire possessing the means to contribute to the restoration ‘in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people’. Owing to this force multiplier we see a plexus of religious belief and imperial policy on behalf of the Zionist idea that begins in the 1830s. As this paper demonstrates, the Christian Zionist career of Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888) is one of the 19th century’s most illuminating examples of British efforts to restore a Jewish polity in Palestine.
Wikipedia - Laurence Oliphant:
Laurence Oliphant (3 August 1829 – 23 December 1888), a Member of Parliament, was a South African-born British author, traveller, diplomat, British intelligence agent, Christian mystic, and Christian Zionist. His best known book in his lifetime was a satirical novel, Piccadilly (1870). More heed has gone since to his plan for Jewish farming communities in the Holy Land, The Land of Gilead. Oliphant was a UK Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs.
. . .Laurence and his wife Alice collaborated on a work of esoteric Christianity, which was published in 1885 as Sympneumata, or Evolutionary Forces Now Active in Man. Influenced by the American mystic Thomas Lake Harris as well as spiritualists Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, Sympneumata is founded on an interpretation of the Fall whereby the human soul was originally androgynous but became divided into male and female counterparts upon being encased in physical bodies. In Sympneumata the Oliphants emphasise the need to locate ones physical and spiritual counterparts through a breathing practice, with the aim of unlocking the androgyne within through 'vibratory' motion.
An excerpt from, "OTD in History April 20, 1799, Napoleon becomes the first world leader to promise the Jews a national homeland in Israel" By Bonnie K. Goodman, Medium, April 20, 2025:
In the spring of 1799, as Napoleon Bonaparte’s military campaign extended into the Middle East, a curious episode occurred—one that would resonate profoundly with the Zionist movement over a century later. Amid his siege of the city of Acre during the Egyptian Campaign, Napoleon allegedly issued a proclamation to the Jews, promising the restoration of their ancient homeland in Jerusalem. Though the authenticity and dissemination of this “proclamation” remain subject to historical debate, its symbolic significance is undoubted. It marked the first time a modern European leader publicly associated the idea of Jewish national restoration with geopolitical goals. In many ways, Napoleon’s appeal to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael foreshadowed later diplomatic efforts, most famously the Balfour Declaration of 1917, to engage with Jewish aspirations for nationhood.
The historical context, content, and legacy of Napoleon’s 1799 appeal included questions about its authenticity, motivations, and reception, particularly within the broader Enlightenment era and the rise of Jewish emancipation. Ultimately, while the promise may not have carried concrete political weight and led to any tangible results, it planted ideological seeds that would bloom and develop into the age of Zionism.
. . .Napoleon’s attitude toward the Jews was complex, reflecting the tensions between Enlightenment universalism, French nationalism, and pragmatic politics. During his reign, he enacted policies that promoted Jewish emancipation, including the recognition of Jews as French citizens. He convened the Sanhedrin in 1807, a symbolic body meant to integrate Jews into French civic life while affirming loyalty to the state.
However, Napoleon also harbored ambivalent and occasionally hostile attitudes toward Jewish economic practices, particularly in Alsace and Lorraine, where he briefly restricted Jewish moneylending. His policy was not based on theological anti-Judaism, as in medieval Europe, but on Enlightenment ideals of rationalization and integration, “regenerating” the Jews as useful citizens.
In the Middle East, Napoleon’s appeal to the Jews was both ideological and tactical Ideologically, it aligned with the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, extended to a historically marginalized people. Tactically, Napoleon sought to undermine Ottoman rule by rallying minorities to the French cause. By presenting himself as a modern Cyrus, referencing the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return from Babylonian exile, Napoleon hoped to win Jewish hearts and possibly arms.
Moreover, by invoking the restoration of ancient Jerusalem, Napoleon tapped into the growing messianic fervor among some Jewish communities, particularly those influenced by the teachings of Rabbi Elijah of Vilna and other proto-Zionist thinkers. His appeal was not merely to the Jews of Palestine but to world Jewry, especially in Europe, where he needed financial and diplomatic support.
